If you're looking for a really lovely Christmas game for your children, then I can highly recommend Christmas Surprises from Orchard Toys. It is for up to four players and for children aged between three and six, although I am sure older children would enjoy playing it too.
There are two games in one in this pack, a Christmas tree game and a Father Christmas game. The Christmas tree game helps to develops colour recognition. You have to match up the colours of the baubles on to the Christmas tree board. You do this by rolling the colour dice and picking up that colour. The first person to fill their Christmas tree is the winner. My daughter particularly enjoyed playing this part of the game.
What they say
A festive colour and shape game.
Help Father Christmas to decorate the Christmas tree and collect presents for his sack.
Double the fun, with two games in one. Children can choose to play a colour match game with baubles on a Christmas tree, or a shape game matching the shaped presents to those in Santa’s sack.
But the real surprise comes when the excitement builds at the end of the shape game, as children turn over their cards to reveal the presents in Santa’s sack, which creates great anticipation, intrigue and reward.
In the other game you have to fill Santa's sack with shaped presents. For this you roll the shape dice and pick up the corresponding shape. You're meant to then place the present wrapping side up in Santa's sack, but my daughter couldn't help herself and peeped each time! This game develops shape and matching skills and encourages observational skills.
The winner of the game is the first person to collect all the different shaped presents and put them in Santa's sack. At the end of the game you can turn all the presents over and find out what you got for Christmas. I really enjoyed this game because of the added element of surprise at the end in finding out which toys you got.
Both games are really enjoyable and I would highly recommend them. The retail price for this game is £9.50. It would make a great addition to board games at Christmas. To be honest though, I imagine that my children will be playing with this all year round. To find out more, check out Orchard Toys website.
Disclosure: We received this game for the purpose of review. This had no impact on my post, which is honest and fair.
